my daughter-in-law is a nurse practitioner, and they have been forced over the past 18 months to help people to the end of their lives and to say good-bye to their loved ones over an iphone, and we should honor them, recognize them as this book does, as we have just done in this segment, but there are too many anonymous heroes out there in america that we don't pay enough attention to. >> amen. >> that does it for us this morning, happy birthday, mike. thank you so much. >> happy birthday, mike. >> and stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle live from our nation's capital, washington, d.c., it is wednesday, october 13th. let's get smarter with all the facts you need to know right now. this morning we are literally in countdown mode, exactly one hour from now, the new shepherd rocket from jeff bezos's blue

origin will blast off for its second manned flight. it comes just months after it launched bezos himself into space as part of its inaugural crew in july. today, science fiction is actually going to become reality when captain kirk himself, actor william shatner will become the oldest person to fly to space at the age of 90. that tops legendary astronaut wally funk who flew on blue origin's first mission at age 82. let's talk about what's about to happen in the next couple of hours. the crew of four will board the shepherd rocket for their 11-minute flight, and that's when they launch. after liftoff, the rocket will stay intact until about 45 miles high, and that's when the cab separates from the booster. it's eventually going to hit zero gravity, and that's when the crew will be able to get out of their seats, float around and have that monumental moment looking back at earth. they're going to hit peak at about four minutes, just beyond the border of outer space. then it's the ride back down

when they will buckle up again, parachutes deploy, and the capsule floats back to earth, and you will watch every single minute of it live right here on msnbc. so let's bring in our own aerospace expert, tom costello. he is at the launch site near van horn, texas. tom, give us the facts. set the scene for us. who is on board and what should we be watching for on the ground? >> let's be honest, we probably wouldn't be here for the second launch of the blue origin jeff bezos rocket if it weren't for the fact who's on board this rocket. it is, as you mentioned, captain kirk, right? the iconic star fleet captain we all grew with up, at least i grew up with and what a brilliant piece of marketing on behalf of bezos. he is as you mentioned, 90 years old. i was with him last night, and with jeff bezos last night,

remarkable. he's in remarkable shape. he is just as bright and smart and witty and funny as he was 40, 50 years ago, and he admits he said it on our air, he's nervous about this flight, and then i said, wait a minute, you battled rom yulens and klingons, and he said yes, but this is the real deal. he's going up, as you mentioned, it's just an 11-minute trip. three to four minutes of weightlessness, about 62 miles up, what is that you say? let me bring you back to the summer. remember richard branson, he was the first one to go up and float in space for three to four minutes, but the bezos team came back and said, no, no, no, that's not over the carmin line, the internationally recognized border to space. that's not what the faa and nasa recognizes, nonetheless, it's important to the bezos team. they'll be in space three to

four minutes of weightlessness, and all of that is what is kind of driving this. it is an ingenious way to push the blue origin line and the space tourism business. by the way, as you know, william shatner is passionate about the earth, and he talked about this in a video clip just released by blue origin. >> we're just at the beginning but how miraculous that beginning is and how extraordinary it is to be part of that beginning. there is this mystique of being in space and that much closer to the stars and being weightless. i shall be entranced by the view of space. >> reporter: yeah, shatner is also passionate about the environment, trying to save the planet, and so this all is hand in hand with his passion about that as well.

amazing, 90 years old. >> 90 years old, that's extraordinary. i got to experience this near van horn, texas, with you in july during bezos's maiden voyage. help us understand why today is so significant to us. could we look back on this and other early missions and say this is the equivalent of the early barn storming days of commercial aviation. does today get you and me closer to going into space? >> if you've got a quarter million dollars to spend, yes. and probably closer to a half million dollars if you're going to go on the branson trip, i think that's 450 or something like that. listen, that's their argument. their argument is that the more that this opens up, the more that you put people on board who will spend that kind of money, just like the people who buy a mercedes and a bmw, the more people who do that it drives down the cost for everybody and eventually it becomes accessible to everybody. that's their argument, that space tourism is going to be

something that's much more acceptable for everybody. i'm candidly not sure i believe that, to be honest. i think it's so expensive. it's probably not going to come down to a price, 50 grand, 25 grand, i don't know that that's going to happen. i think the reason we're here is because it's captain kirk and that's it. >> this has also been -- this mission has been a dream of bezos's since he was a kid. this morning he actually posted pictures of star trek tri-quarters and communicators that he made out of paper and cardboard when he was a little kid. extraordinarily his mother actually kept that stuff. is that why he picked shatner? this is emotional, nostalgic. it's more than just marketing. >> no, you're absolutely right. it's very, very personal for him. he grew up loving star trek, loving captain kirk, believing in this notion of sci-fi and

that you should be able to explore the heavens, and so he was surprised when his mom saved those momentos from his childhood, and so they're going to go on board this rocket ride. you know, that's kind of fun. that's kind of special. it really speaks to the cultural impact that star trek had on so many people. i'll admit it because jeff bezos and i are about the same age. yeah, i grew up watching star trek. i loved it. i loved captain kirk and spock and the whole team, and nen for me, what a thrill to spend 30 minutes talking to william shatner last night. this is really what they hope will be the wave of the future for people who want to go and travel and want to see the earth from that altitude, 62 miles high, and trying to drive home the message of how fragile the earth is and how we all have to do our part to try to preserve it. and bezos has said after having

left amazon as ceo, that's his focus now. it's on blue origin. it's on environmental causes, and so it all comes full circle for him after spending so much money, billions to make this all come together and make it a reality. >> tom costello, stay close. we're going to come back to you shortly. we will be following every moment, every motion as we prepare in the next hour, we are going to see that launch. for now we've got to shift gears. there's a ton of news to get to. and focus on this mess making life difficult for millions of americans. shortages of everything from tires to toilet paper. prices on everything keep getting higher. consumer prices rose again in the month of september up more than 5% from where we were last year. later today, president biden will be announcing his plan to help fix some of these issues, opening the port of l.a. around the clock and getting key businesses like walmart and fedex to help ease some of these backlog issues.

despite that, it has gotten so bad that a white house official told reuters this week that shortages may stretch through christmas. santa, i hope you're watching. it's not just the consumers who have been out of luck. employers are having the same problem finding workers, 4.3 million americans left their jobs in august. and remember, this is after people lost their enhanced jobless benefits, which we thought would force more people back to work. i want to bring in nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander, and the one and only james carville, veteran democratic strategist. we talk a lot about the president's multitrillion dollars agenda, build back better, the soft infrastructure plan, but that does nothing for people struggling right this minute. give us the facts here, how is the president addressing the problems i just laid out? that's what people are talking about. >> you're exactly right. this is a pocketbook issue for millions of americans right now.

we've heard about those supply chain bottlenecks, you might need to start your holiday shopping earlier this year so you're not out of luck. some of the country's biggest suppliers are trying to help clear that backlog as fast as they can. obviously the pandemic has had a major impact here. today the president is hosting business executives from all sorts of companies, fedex, u.p.s., target, walmart among them that have all agreed to increase their operations, especially overnight to help clear the congestion. one point on that specifically, i was speaking to the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg moments ago and he said those overnight hours are crucial, especially when it comes to trucking and moving cargo across the country because you can do it more efficiently because you have the roads to yourself. and the president will be hosting the heads of the largest ports, los angeles and long beach. they handle 40% of cargo. those containers that you see

sitting on those ships, they are filled with things like toys and appliances and bicycles and furniture. it's why you're right on when you say prices and wait times have gone up. the white house hired a bottleneck czar two months ago. an official says marking a 90-day sprint until the end of the year. >> i want to get practical and political. the president has two huge bills. massively important in washington, long-term significant solutions. i want you to think about what people are complaining about every day right now at their dinner tables. how do biden's bills help them right now. that's what people care about. >> well, honestly, they probably don't help them right now. what does help them is the corresponding -- on the bottlenecks -- and that's going to help them obviously. we had a steep rise in demand that obviously suppliers weren't ready for, but i don't know if

there's something he can do that's going to help people right at this instant. i think that the virus is getting better and i think the economy is going to continue to improve, and we'll just have to catch up with him. they got a pass with people saying i agree with this completely, they should keep certain things in there, pass them and do them right, and then run on the things you didn't do in 2022. to me that makes a lot of sense. but they've got to negotiate to get something done so people can see there's some action. they're right, gas prices are high. i would point out that wages went up in the last jobs report. >> they did, but unfortunately inflation is going up faster. then should the biden administration focus on messaging rather than think about broad build back better, should they be more explicit and say this is going to give you affordable child care? this is going to give you affordable medicine. that people can get their head around. >> absolutely.

there was a poll by cbs, that 10% of people even know what's in this. if you're saying we've got legislation, $2 trillion, well, people if they're just spending $2 trillion on nothing, they're not going to be for it. if you tell them what we're spending the $2 trillion on, then they'll be for it. it's that simple. and i don't think that they or even the congressional wing of the party has done a particularly good job of telling people exactly what's in this. it's not just throwing $2 trillion away. it's actually making people's lives better, and if i -- for instance, in home health, if i'm taking care of an elderly person or have someone in a nursing home and i know that that's in there, that's really important to me. that makes me feel better today. and there's hundreds of people like that that are in there. >> you just got to let them know. >> yeah.

>> james with all of this as a backdrop, i know you've been focused on virginia, the gubernatorial race, it's a few weeks away. it's the first big test for democrats since biden was elected. explain to us why we should pay attention to this. why does it matter? >> first of all, in virginia, the party that loses the presidency in the last 40 years wins the virginia governorship. if we lose that, think of the national implications of this are going to be a lot of democrats that have been re-election may choose to retire. it will help republican recruitment. if the converse happens and we actually win, then the national implications will also be very favorable to democrats. the other thing is my daughter's getting married in virginia. i spend a lot of time there, and that state has made unbelievable progress since the start of this

century. they're going to go back to being oklahoma if the republicans get back into power, i can assure you that virginia will turn into one of the -- they're close to being one of the more progressive states, it will turn its head around and look backwards as far as you can see. carry me back to old virginia, well, bring me forward to tomorrow's virginia. much more attractive to people. >> bring me forward to tomorrow's agenda. i like that, james carville, always good to see you. thank you for joining us this morning, congratulations to your daughter. on the right side of your screen, you are looking at the blue origin rocket as they prepare. launch is going to be in less than an hour. we are watching it minute by minute. 44 minutes to go. we now have to turn to the latest on the january 6th subpoenas. today is the first of three consecutive deadlines over the next three days. so far we have heard nothing, zero, zippo, zilch from the

people who are being targeted. but the committee may be getting closer to forcing the issue. last night liz cheney, one of just two republicans on the committee said members were, quote, in solidarity on moving ahead with criminal contempt charges for people who don't compliment i want to bring in nbc national political reporter, sahil kapur. i don't mean to be negative. let's say they could get criminal contempt. again, what does that mean? does it mean a police officer is showing up at one of these guys' door and saying let's roll? >> that would be a referral to the justice department. a criminal contempt citation where a u.s. attorney in washington would be asked to prosecute these individuals, that could mean a fine, jail time. this is the solution that the january 6th select committee appears to be moving toward to try to enforce these subpoenas. a source told me the situation looks very much as it did last week without much of a change. two men in the first round of subpoenas, mark meadows and kash

patel have had some engagement with the committees. no word on full cooperation. a third one, steve bannon they say is hiding behind claims of privilege by former president donald trump, ask there has been one shift, dan scavino, the committee says they have officially served him. that deadline has moved back a little bit. regardless, the members of this committee insist that they are determined to throw the book at these individuals if they refuse to comply with the subpoena. let's have a listen to one of them, stephanie murphy, what she had to say about this. >> we intend to enforce our subpoenas, the first step will be for us to pursue criminal contempt. what that means is that the committee will put together a report and then refer it to the house floor. there will be a vote, and then it goes to the department of justice. >> would you recommend jail time? >> i would recommend the full extent of consequences. jail time, fines. we need to make sure that these people understand that this is not acceptable. >> and if they go that route,

stephanie, a committee source tells me they expect it to happen expeditiously both at the committee level and at the house level, that criminal contempt referral. >> we now have to turn back to our lead story on the right side of your screen you are seeing the team ready for this launch. there's jeff bezos in the driver's seat getting ready with the team. of course he will not be part of this mission. we're now 41 minutes away from blue origin's second manned space flight. right now the four are set to launch into space. it includes william shatner there leaving the training center for the launch pad. it will not be long before they go past the final frontier. can you believe we're saying that for real? you can see them getting ready right here on your screen. you know, it's these minutes. i was there in july, and there's this sort of excitement but also fear. remember, they are going to be launching, people watch this rocket launch and then, you know, minutes later when

suddenly it goes out of sight. there's that sense of panic, but you know, when you speak to anyone on the blue origin team, i spoke to mark bezos who was part of the mission over the summer in the last few days who said this is all about safety, safety, safety. audry powers is going to be part of this mission. she joined blue origin in 2013. she is in charge of this rocket, of specifically land operations. so for those who are saying, oh, my gosh, captain kirk, is she going to be safe? safety does seem to be their top mission. also ahead this hour, the new change at our borders that could impact thousands coming into the u.s. and could be a game changer in our fight against covid. and the shot nba star kyrie irving won't take, widening the vaccine mandate debate. all the facts you need to know right now. the facts you need tow right now. (man 2) definitely higher.

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developments in the effort to contain the coronavirus in the united states. the department of homeland security is announcing today that starting next month nonessential travelers will be able to enter the united states across the land border with mexico and canada for the first time in 19 months, but travelers will be required to show proof of vaccination. it comes as the fight over vaccine mandates continues. brooklyn nets superstar kyrie irving is no longer going to be allowed to practice or play in a

game with his team as he refuses to get vaccinated. joining me now to discuss all this, nbc's ron allen and julia ainsley, nbc news contributor dr. vin gupta. let's start with this new vaccine requirement for travelers from mexico and canada. we've been seeing people, thousands and thousands of people across our border over the last few months. are they considered essential? is that why this is different? >> well, we're only talking about legal travelers. tourists, people who are coming to go shopping here. people who are coing to visit here, people who are coming to see their family members. this does not mean the undocumented immigrants crossing our border. in fact, it doesn't even matter if they're vaccinated. dhs is keeping in place their policy that will allow them to expel the majority of asylum seekers back into mexico or their home countries just like they've done with haitians that have recently crossed the border. this pertains to people in

canada and mexico who are coming in legally, that nonessential travel. many of whom who haven't seen family members or even people who are part of their same communities, when you look at those border communities in mexico and canada, they haven't been able to see those people for a long time. now if they can show proof of vaccination starting early next month, they'll be able to enter. it's a stricter requirement for essential travel. that's been allowed to continue so far under the pandemic. now starting at the beginning of the year, even essential travelers, truckers, people who are really key to trade in the economy, they'll have to show proof of vaccination. it's easier for some and a little harder on others. >> i want to quickly note the blue origin countdown clock that we've been watching, it's been on the right side of your screen is in a temporary hold. we do not have details as to why it's on hold. we'll get you that momentarily. julia, just repeat this for us, though, for those undocumented immigrants like the 30,000 haitians who arrived at the u.s. texas border last month, explain

to us what precautions u.s. officials are taking to screen for covid. >> well, stephanie, they don't do screening when they first arrive. you remember those pictures of those masses of haitian migrants under that bridge, none of those people are screened. they get screened when they get transferred to shelters that are run by ngos or by i.c.e. then they're screened for covid and also offered vaccinations in many cases. but that is the policy dhs is sticking with. they say they just don't have the capacity and resources to test everyone the minute they cross into our borders. >> all right, ron, we got to talk kyrie. you're outside the barclays center. that is where the brooklyn nets play. kyrie irving no longer playing or practicing. he now actually has the time to do his own research, though we have no idea what that even looks like. what has the reaction been to the nets making this decision? >> i think the fans are outraged at kyrie irving that he's not going to play. the nets are one of the best

teams in the league and have a real good shot at the championship and a better shot with him. on another level, more important than basketball, there's a lot of concern about the message that this sends to particularly minority communities. basketball players are of course huge role models. there was a big push early on in in the vaccination process to get nba players vaccinated and they are now up to 95% with irving and a few others the notable exceptions. and there have been people like michael jordan, lebron james, kareem abdul-jabbar who have said they are vaccinated. in the case of abdul-jabbar saying it's irresponsible for athletes not to do this because so many people in minority communities where the vaccination rates are disproportionately low look up to these people as role models. there's that. kyrie also has not really explained in detail in a coherent way why he's doing this. he says it's a private matter. we know that he's been active in other social justice matters over the years, so there's that. but he hasn't sat down and answered questions and really explained this.

he may never will, but he might at some point. so there's that and this also fits into something of a pattern. there's a context for this. you'll remember last year, kyrie irving missed a number of games and practices for, quote, unquote, personal reasons, and he was seen on social media doing things, gatherings on masks and so forth. he's seen as something of a bit of a loose cannon, but a principal person. there's not a lot of outage at the nets because they feel like -- people feel like the nets had no choice. you had a player who was saying i'll be there, i won't be there, i can be there, i can't be there. and remember the nets are following the rules laid down by the city of new york city and other cities that have laid down the rule that. >> dr. gupta white house told governors on tuesday to begin preparing to administer vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 by early

november. what do you think about this? are we ready? >> i'm ready. >> i do think we're ready. parents across the country are ready. what we know is that if we get kids less than 12 years of age the vaccine, what's going to happen is transmission rates, the number of daily cases will decrease. what we're concerned about are data showing that adolescents, young adolescents can transmit the virus to those that are vaccinated in multigenerational exceeding what teenagers do. kids can be vectors in transmission. in idaho and other states they account for 4% of pediatric hospitalizations overall. kids can end up in the hospital. they're doing so more now. as we approach cold and flu season really vital to get them vaccinated. >> all right, dr. vin gupta, ron allen, thank you both so much, julia ainsley as well.

as i mentioned just moments ago, we are currently in a hold on that blue origin space flight. still working on more details as to why that hold has been put in place. right now we are about 15 minutes behind. i want to bring in former nasa astronaut to discuss, leroy chow, the former commander of the international space station. leroy, i know you don't have any intimate details, but what could this hold be? >> i don't know of any rocket launch count down sequence that doesn't have built-in holds. i imagine blue origin does as well. this could be one of those, but since launch is scheduled for top of the hour. it's probably not that. built-in holds are usually for the launch team to come together, take a poll to make sure everyone's in sync, so this particular hold, it's hard to say what it could be. the team could be working a technical issue or they could just be holding for, you know, something as mundane as maybe the car got a flat tire bringing

them to the pad. we don't know. >> i know to many, you know, this is only exciting if you love space or science. some are saying this doesn't matter to them, but is today important? because we should look at this like the early days of commercial aviation. >> i think it is important. i think it's exciting to see commercial space finally starting to, you know, take off, no pun intended, but in bringing in people like william shatner, when i was a boy, he was certainly a hero to me watching the old "star treks." it's exciting it gets the public interested. >> what do you think must be going through the heads of these four people, specifically william shatner. for you, you spent years and years of your life training for this moment. for a guy like william shatner, he played one on tv, but this only became a reality in the last few weeks. >> sure, i mean, of course everybody who's about to launch

into space for the very first time is going to be thinking about it. you know, long before probably most of us put that to bed, so to speak, we thought about it, accepted it, decided that the risk reward ratio is worth it. we're aware of it. they're keyed up. they're excited. i'm sure as they get into the vehicle, their pulse rates will be higher than normal, especially as they get closer to t zero. mostly excitement i think is going to be going through their minds. >> you yourself have flown above the international space station, and then back here on earth, year after year, you have seen science budgets cut, cut, and then cut again. did you ever think in your lifetime we would be in a place like this, this kind of progress? >> i've always felt that commercial space would eventually get there, and i'm pleased to see it has gotten as far as it has, and seems to have really accelerated over the last few years. all that is a good thing, of course the budget cuts you're

talking about are from the government. and remember, these companies by and large are self-funded or funded by commercial ventures. now, they do have government contracts a lot of them, so that does bring some money in, but they're contracts for delivering services. and so it's a little bit of a mishmash, but it's exciting to see it happen. >> it certainly is. leroy, thank you for joining us this morning, we'll be speaking to you again later on as we get closer to this launch. coming up next right here on earth and here in washington, we are staying on the story. if we do get more information about that hold at the launch site, we will bring it to you. as you just heard from leroy, it is totally normal. you see it with almost every launch: we're going hear from a group of astronauts who know exactly what the crew are going through in these final moments of preparation. that is ahead. moments of preparation that is ahead.

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welcome back. we are continuing to watch and wait for the blue origin launch flight. it was set to launch at 10:00 a.m., but we are currently in a temporary hold, and we'll

get you more details on why that hold is in place any minute now. in the meantime, we have to turn to a huge story affecting millions of americans. the battle over reproductive rights. the supreme court now signaling they could side with kentucky's attorney general in that major abortion case. the case is set to decide who is allowed to enforce abortion restrictions. also this morning, more fallout from the texas law effectively banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, when as a reminder, many, many women don't even know if they're pregnant at that point. with women who are now traveling hundreds of miles to safely end their pregnancy in nearby states, states like louisiana. yasmin vossoughian is live in shreveport. you are at an abortion clinic where half the patients are from texas. who is traveling that far? how is this clinic handling this inflow? >> it's tough for them, steph. i was just speaking to the director, i'm going to play a

little bit of that for you in just a moment, but they're being inundated. you said 50% of the patients here are coming from texas. she just told me actually that number has now gone up to 60 to 65% of women that are coming to this clinic now are all from texas. you talk about the process, right? they're making the call. there's a law hear in louisiana that you got to wait 24 hours, so it may be a bus trek from austin, for instance, 12 to 13 hours on a bus having to come here for your initial appointment, go back home and make an appointment for your follow-up when you actually receive your abortion, which may be weeks from there, then having to come back once again on that bus. then you talk about the financial burden. a lot of these women are having to take on, many of them shift workers, having to take time off work. that's hard enough. we spoke to a texas abortion fund yesterday who said before september 1st, they were getting about 10 to 15 calls a week for help with abortion services. now it's 10 to 15 calls per day.

they are being inundated and then you think of the ripple effects. you have so many women coming from texas, but then there are women in louisiana also seeking abortion services and they're having to push their appointments back as well because these clinics are being overrun. i mentioned to you i spoke to the director of this clinic, kathleen pittman. here's what she had to say. >> the phones are ringing off the wall. we're busy, we're extending our hours. we're seeing women delaying their procedures not because they choose to but because they can't get in quick enough. that's affecting not just the texas women but louisiana women as well. >> reporter: texas is basically a test case for the rest of the country. this director saying she's worried about louisiana come spring. if texas can pull this thing off, then you got a lot of conservative legislators looking

it texas saying maybe we can do it as well. it's a wait and see scenario, very precarious situation to say the least at this clinic behind me. >> massively important, and we're going to stay on it. thank you for being there. coming up we've got to go back to that breaking news, the blue origin flight on hold. why? plus, how long will the flight last? how far will they go and exactly how do each of the crew members prepare and get picked? all the facts you need to know this morning. from puerto rico when he was 17. with ancestry, being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together... ...it's amazing. it's honestly amazing.

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♪♪ welcome back to msnbc's special coverage of blue origin's second manned space flight. we are currently in a hold and watching the launch site just outside van horn, texas. i want to bring in my co-pilot for this mission, my friend and colleague, jose diaz-balart. tom costello at the launch site

near van horn, lindsey riser in our own mission control with a closer look at the new shepherd rocket, dr. may gemson, a former nasa astronaut and the first black woman in space and back with us, leroy chiou the former commander of the international space station, and garrett riseman and dr. jose hernandez. >> let's start with tom, good morning, tom, do we know anything about this delay, why the delay? >> reporter: hang on one second. i'm going to give you an answer. it looks like the -- it looks like we've resumed the countdown, guys. so they were going through the checklist, pardon me for listening to the voice of mission control, which is actually blue origin. this was a vehicle readiness issue. it was not weather-related. it was not atc-related. this was vehicle readiness, something on that checklist kind of had them pause for a while, but they just as you came to me, they were picking up the countdown again, so i think

we're now at about t minus 44 minutes or so, and well on our way towards launch. and as you know, we have william shatner as well as audrey powers, chris bus hauzen and glen devriess ask they are inside that pickup truck being driven by jeff bezos, of all people, and they've been sitting there ready to go. i think we're going to watch them pull away right about now leaving the training center to go over towards the launch pad. so rather than taking off at 10:00 eastern time, i think we're looking now at probably closer to i'm guessing 10:33, 10:34, something like that, by my count. whatever that hiccup was in the count, they seem to have resolved it, and yes, the trucks are, in fact, right now moving on their way out to the pad, guys. >> okay, but dr. may, help me out here because when i hear that that hold was for vehicle readiness, i'm a mere civilian.

that makes me scared, more scared than i would be if, let's say it was weather out of one's control. if it's a vehicle readiness issue, what could that look like? >> so not being absolutely familiar with the blue origin vehicle, i think that as leroy said earlier that there are always holds built in so you can check through things. it could be that someone needed to make sure that a monitoring system was working correctly. it could be any range of things. i think the difference is now because you don't have some of the same transparency that you have with a nasa launch where they come out and tell you specifically the piece, it makes it a little bit more worrisome, but usually there is a process to work through things, so there could be a number of items, not necessarily -- it's not going to be something like the engine, something's wrong with the engine because then you wouldn't expect it to be resolved so rapidly. >> so lindsey riser, give us a

little picture, paint us a picture of what is going to happen in just over 42 minutes. >> reporter: we want to give you guys an intimate look of what they're going to experience up there, but also more about this spacecraft. let's go ahead and give you some fast facts first. we're talking about blue origin's new shepherd. this is its 18th mission to space. its second crewed mission. this spacecraft is designed to fly autonomously. it could hold six people, four are going to be on board today, of those four none of them are pilots. let's dive into the components here of new shepherd. of course we have that crew capsule, it's pretty spacious, 530 cubic feet. this is what is going to detach from the rocket here. then we're going to keep going down here, those drag brakes, that is what is going to slow the booster down on its descent by about half. again, those two components are going to detach. they're going to have separate trajectories. we're going to show you that in

a second. then we have that booster. that is what propels the spacecraft into flight, also slows down to five miles an hour on the descent. on the bottom we have the fins here, this is what helps guide, really stabilize during the assent and guideascent and guide on the descent. then we have the landing gear. they're going to deploy when they're ready for touch down. this entire spacecraft, about 60 feet tall. i alluded to the flight. let me give you a good look at what's going to happen mere, minute by minute. as that rocket climbs, people will feel the gravity three times stronger than normal. they'll feel pinned to their seats. after about three minutes, that's when the booster and crew capsule will detach. you see the separate trajectories on your screen. that green line, that shows the booster. that will go into a controlled landing on its own concrete pad. that crew capsule will keep going, past the carmen line, 62

miles above earth. you'll remember, richard branson and virgin galactic, they went 50 miles above earth, that is blue origin's one-upmanship here. and that is when they're going to feel three minutes of weightlessness. they can unstrap from their seats, you see floating here right now. they're going to be able to explore. look at these huge windows. they're about 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 feet wide. they're really big. they're the biggest windows to fly into space. this is the three minutes of fun here, and it's a quick three minutes. then that crew capsule will start falling back to earth. gravity will take hold. and that is when we'll see three parachutes deploy to help guide that crew capsule back into the texas desert. there's going to be a recovery crew nearby. and jose and steph, we'll have to wait 22 minutes until that hatch opens and we can ask everybody how it was. >> garrett, first, i want to

make a clarification. this flight doesn't have a specific pilot, but audrey powers who is part of this flight is an expert, she is a pilot. can you speak to garrett, what the experience is like? it's not like these are mere civilians who are stumbing into this rocket saying, let's see how it goes. >> well, they do get a bit of preparation on the days they spend at the launch site before they launch. but really, there's not a whole lot for them to do. really, their job is basically taking off their seat belt. once they get to zero gravity, playing around, and getting back in their seat. which is critical. you've got to get back -- the biggest way that i think something could go wrong, other than a major technical problem, is if somebody doesn't get back into the street by the time they hit that 5g spike -- that you'll have five times the force of gravity hitting you as you reentry the atmosphere. and you need to be positioned well for that. so, as far as piloting, what was said before is absolutely correct. this is completely automatic. you have as much control while

sitting in this vehicle as you do while sitting in a roller coaster. >> that description certainly -- sorry, jose? >> i was just going to say, that's a fascinating thought. a lot of times, we don't realize that many times when we're in a commercial airplane, the pilots aren't flying it, that it's on auto pilot. they even land sometimes, right, on auto pilot. this is different. but at the same time, it's really been kind of worked out. >> that's true. you know, it's been tried and tested. and that's the nice thing about automation, it tends to do the same thing every time, it's very predictable. but when you compare it to the pilots of an airliner, it is true that almost all the time when you're flying, especially in cruise, they engage the auto pilot and they're just monitoring the airplane. but they have the capability at any time to make manual control. if they don't like what the auto pilot is doing, if there's a change in plan, if there's a truck on the roadway that the auto pilot can't see and you need to go around, they can grab those controls and do that. there's no such option here.

there is a fully automated vehicle. there's no way to do anything to intercede should something go amiss. >> that's an important distinction. jose hernandez, a former astronaut, how significant is this when you're looking at this, jose, with your experience at the space shuttle? this is really a new era. >> absolutely, jose. it's absolutely a new era, because here, we can take individuals like william shatner, who i'm a great fan of, and have zero experience in actual flying or training and train him for a few days and can actually go up and experience the fact that the zero gravity or the microgravity environment that they'll experience for the three minutes. and it's amazing that -- it's ushering a new era of space

tourism. the only thing that i sort of would like to sort of raise a red flag is the fact that right now, it's not being regular utilitied so much. i mean, you look at our airline industry, you've got the faa that dictates when engines have to be reinspected or serviced. and i don't think there's that such mechanism here in this industry, and it's only a matter of time where we're going to have to impose those type of conditions to ensure the safety of these tourists that are going up and crossing the carmen line and getting their wings. >> may, as we are watching this, and we can see on our screen right now, we can see these four astronauts making their way to the launch site. you know, they've gotten out of the vehicles. they're walking to the rocket. a lot of people watching are saying, well, this looks like the world's most expensive joy ride to outer space, while back

here on earth, we've got mountains and mountains of problems. why should people care about this mission? why should they be supportive of it? >> so i think that there's -- there are a couple of things going on, stephanie. so one is the expectation that space doesn't do anything. now, this is a tourism kind of thing and joy ride in one sense, but on the other hand, it is building a new or evolving a new system where people have access to space or organizations have access to space outside of governments. but i need to deal with that whole issue about problems here on earth. one of the things that we have missed and frequently don't emphasize is how much space exploration actually impacts life on earth. we take for granted weather satellites. we take for granted global positioning systems, which are on our cell phones, to tell us what to do.

we take for granted all the materials. all of those things exist, and there is a robust program in space exploration about how do we ensure that the benefits -- the things that we learned, that space technologies come to us here on earth. and so i think we have to separate out this particular tourist ride from what space exploration has done and still has the potential to do even more. >> what an important distinction, as we see the astronauts climbing up those stairs, heading up to the capsule. tom costello, talk to me about the actual rocket that they're going to be sitting on top of. >> yeah, the "new shepard" rocket, named after alan shepard, the first american to go into space. that rocket is 60 feet tall. it has about 110,000 pounds of thrust. it's going to be -- it's a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket. what does that mean?

it means the only exhaust coming out of the bottom of it is essentially water vapors, right? so they have made the assertion all along, this is a very environmentally friendly rocket ride into space. and this is all part of jeff bezos' emphasis on trying to now, as he steps away from his role as amazon, trying to focus very much on his role at blue origin. and he says it is one and one with trying to ensure that we do all we can to save the planet. and to preserve the planet. and the stop environmentally harmful practices. so that is all part and parcel of the same thing. you know, i would come back to the idea and if i could, you guys were talking about why do we care. why are we here? and yes, we've had conversations over the last few months about opening space up to everybody. making something that's more accessible to everybody. let's be honest. we probably would not be covering this today if not for william shatner, if not for

captain kirk, you know? and i was at an event last night with jeff bezos and also with william shatner, and i've asked this question of many people. first of all, i think this is brilliant marketing, to get the world's attention a second time, after the first launch in the summer, a second time, bringing in william shatner. and my question to everybody has been, well, who's next? the dalai lama? i mean, how do you keep bringing the world's media back? how do you keep getting the attention of the world on blue origin and its space tourism business, which is really what this is all about. it's brilliant marketing to bring captain kirk in and to try to sell more seats down the road, guys. >> tom. it's brilliant free marketing. because there goes captain kirk and there you are in the far, far reaches of west texas, covering this story. and we're covering it, minute by minute. leroy, do you buy that argument that ultimately, all of this is aimed at focusing on staifg

planet earth? that's what jeff bezos says. >> i wouldn't say all of it is aimed towards that. of course, any commercial veteran needs to turn a profit in order to stay in business. so it's partially about that. it's partially about helping jeff bezos realize his big picture dream of colonizing what we call sis lunar space, the area between low earth orbit and the moon. this is a small first step for jeff bezos and blue origin, showing that they can launch people successfully into space and they have other rockets and bigger ambitions on the drawing board. if you want to take really big picture view of it, in jeff bezos' mind, this is all about saving planet earth by helping to move industries off planet. but in the shorter term, the company needs to turn a profit in order to keep going. >> and you can see right now, jose -- i want to point out, you can see, in addition to looking at the four astronauts to the left on your screen is jeff